The Native Iowan

Golly, 2nd day of the 9th month. Skies are powder blue. Air is still. I can feel the seasons changing.

In the USofA, this weekend is the Memorial Day holiday. Traditionally the last holiday of summer. Memorial Day marks the last big party before the winter winds return. The end of summer, the start of fall… Halloween and Thanksgiving are the next things to look forward to, in the USofA.

Here in the land of Aus, as the season changes from nice but chilly – to nice but warm… We would normally be preparing for the “wet season”. But…. BUTTT… since we have not seen a “dry season” for a couple years, I shall content my self to prepare for the coming “wetter season”.

And reports predict “wetter than normal” weather patterns coming.

I blame it all on GlowBall warming…

But on what do we blame the insane double standards we see in the recent, large protests here in Aus?

An Aussie, marching in support of your homeland, is a bigot, a racist, a white supremacist.

An Immigrant, marching in support of a terrorist regime, is a martyr, a saint, a good guy.

The media portrays the recent Sydney Harbour Bridge “Pro-Palestine” march as a glorious party, including families, small children, dogs and old folks… https://bbc.com/news/articles/clydnvw1dg5o

This past week a “Pro- Australia” march took place, and was generally portrayed as some kind of white supremacy gathering… https://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/fact-checkers-assess-march-for-australia-immigration-claims/8yorv67wp

You can profess solidarity with the folks holding hostages, wrap a checkered scarf over your face, pretend you are Yasser Arafat. Carry the Palestine flag, chant slogans, demand sharia law, and promise jihad, and be thought a thoughtful, sensitive valuable human.

But…. BUTTT… Carry an Australian flag, call for less immigration, lower house prices, less violence in the streets, better schools and… well hell! I guess being patriotic aint cool any more.

There is much to be said about the modern world and the shift from wanting, demanding safety, security, education, medical care and the ability to grow, build, and develop the society in a positive vein – To a retrograde development to a tradition time where women have no rights, children are chattel, and violence is a legitimate response to difficult times.

I saw this and thought it poignant… https://michiganadvance.com/2023/06/14/hamtramck-city-council-bans-pride-flag-from-city-property/#:~:text=The%20all%2DMuslim%20Hamtramck%20City,city%20chose%20bigotry%20over%20inclusivity.

In this situation, after the loony liberal left back the conservative muslims, thinking we’re all fine and friends and diversity is our strength… the conservatives kick the liberals where their testicles once were.

What did they expect?

What does the world expect?

Expect from a group that proclaims death to the Western world, Western values, Western religion.

For my money, I say listen to the words. I dont think either side is lying.

And the beat goes on…

More later

My favourite month is near its end for the year 2025. Only one day left and we waltz into September. The year is all down hill from there.

Too, winter’s end is upon us here in the land of Aus.

It is blustery, chilly, and sunshiny outside. A southerly is bringing freezing winds to much of the land.

The old house is complaining. Making a lot of noise.

When we first moved here I told the grandkids the house was haunted. All the sounds, and rattles and moaning, it sure sounded like it was haunted.

In QLD houses are less insulated, less wind proof, much less so than a house built in Iowa… No double glazing here. The Windows rattle, the house moans in the hearty gusts.

Iowa builds to withstand subzero temps and snow-loads on the roof. Galvanised roofing material is reserved for sheds. Houses get built thick, strong, heavy … Nothing like the sub-tropical design of houses here in Aus.

So I sit inside. Was out a while ago but its simply too windy to get much done… I’d like to do some weed spraying, but it’s way, way too windy.

I know some folks out there will think that the use of herbicides like “Round-Up” is evil, bad, wrong.

I say this: Folks that believe such know little or nothing about land management.

I know I’ll get challenged for my statement, but the fact remains that passive control of invasive weeds does little to no real good in managing the spreading of such. Key invasive weed species in Queensland include common culprits like Lantana, Parthenium weed, Camphor Laurel, Giant Rat’s Tail Grass, and various water weeds such as Water Hyacinth and Alligator Weed. These plants crowd out natives, impacting grazing lands, and reducing water quality.

I know a few “Organic” farmers that think land management excludes the use of herbicides.

These self same farmers live on land overrun by weeds. And once the weeds get ahead of you, it’s a costly exercise to claw control of the land back. A couple of my neighbours have let their property go wild. In the 8 years we’ve been here we have had professionals come and spray 3 times. It is a constant, never ending story that some folks dont want to hear.

I use a combination of slashing/ mowing and herbicides. I can manage most of my front-20 with mowing. I spray the ditches and fence rows. Mow the rest, when its dry enough.

Right now, in my back-80, I have lots to do… I have left it way too long… The floods of recent times have removed my roads, my crossings over the steam that runs the length of my property. I need the roads to put my machines to use.

I last rebuilt the main crossing 18 months ago. We did a good job. Ended up with a great result, only to watch the floods wipe it out and carry the expensive culverts down stream…

I was very proud of that crossing… I’d designed it so the “road” acted like a diving platform… I’d dug a nice deep pool on the downward side of the stream. Layered the culverts so in low-flow times all was cool, and in high-flow times things were cool too… Was planning to put steps in and out of the pool for the kids. The 1st pict above is me testing the swimming hole out. The second is the same location showing the result, only a few weeks later, of hydrostatic forces not being friendly.

A week ago it was dry enough to take the digger back and create a little weir/ crossing. As soon as the winds die down I’ll get back there, nuke the weeds.

This past week I have been clearing the many drains on my property…

The idea is to allow the water to drain away, to not build up too much pressure on the in-flow side of the drains. Another one of those never ending stories…

I am like a kid in his sandbox playing with his toys…

And the beat goes on… marching tot he end of 08 and the beginning of 09-25.

And life is good.

More later

Prestidigitation is one of my favourite words.

prestidigitation • \press-tuh-dij-uh-TAY-shun\ • noun. : sleight of hand, legerdemain. Examples: Her career as a magician began with feats of prestidigitation and illusion performed for her high school’s annual talent shows. “

As a child I received a “magic kit” and by about 10yrsold I could give a rather clumsy display of sleight of hand. I have always enjoyed card tricks and disappearing coins and tricks that took a bit of digital dexterity.

For me, prestidigitation equals “look over here”.

I see prestidigitation in our world, in our lives, in our politics… here’s one:

Democratic governor of the US state of Illinois, JB Pritzker said Trump is paving the way to a police state.“Donald Trump’s threat to bring the National Guard to Chicago isn’t about safety — it’s a test of the limits of his power and a trial run for a police state,” Mr Pritzker wrote on his Facebook page. “Illinois has long worked with federal law enforcement to tackle crime, but we won’t let a dictator impose his will.”

Pritzker is doing the “look over here thing”, he’s taking our attention away from the dramas in Chicago. He is directing us to look at the pending police state, not the death rate, lawlessness and corruption that is Chicago/ Illinois.

I’ve gone looking for decent stats per crime, violence, murder in the Windy City, but fear the numbers are undependable.

For too long the “look over here” folks have been fudging the stats, doctoring the numbers, lying, basically lying…

I have this which may give some insight but again I’m not confident there is much here that has not been fudged with…
https://counciloncj.org/crime-trends-in-u-s-cities-year-end-2024-update/

I find it interesting that the ability to control crime is real, we have the tools. But the Will, the conscious will to “clean things up”, to take the sick and needy off the streets, to make an effort to control the slow rot that is drug addiction. To take a knife to the cancerous growth that is organised crime.

I fear that too many are profiting, gaining, being enriched by “turning a blind eye”. Leaders can allow a city, say San Fran, to be turned into an out-door toilet. They can spend billions and billions on “solutions”, while enriching themselves, those close, those attached. As long as there is a problem, there shall be funds available to misuse and abuse.

I dont think the solutions are all that difficult. I think it’s a matter of WILL.

But then I do believe that many elected and appointed leaders do not want a sober, alert, engaged electorate. A bunch of junkies living in tents, shitting on the street, lining up for free dope are much more manageable than any sober informed individual.

And the beat goes on…

More later

And its not over yet… still a week of August fun n games to be had…

Some picts of the antics thus far…

exhibit a) Birthday letter from 7yrold Nova:

exhibit b) Birthday letter from 10yrold Gigi:

exhibit c) Hounds n Humans:

exhibit d) Roger snuggling with the puppies:

exhibit e) My ever vigilant guard dawgs:

Life is gooood

More later

Who says I suck at math? They are wrong. I know that today, and today only…

21=68.

Wouldn’t have it any other way.

Yesterday I posted an obit for Uncle Teddy Selman. I noted in that post that I have not heard from Teddy for decades. And thats OK. Sometimes people get lost in the currents of life. And as a life-long adventurer, I have been “leaving”, moving on, sailing away often. Any loss of communication between friends in my life remains largely due to me, myself and my eclectic and eccentric life.

After posting Teddy’s obit yesterday I started thinking of classic Teddy tales…

Teddy was an interesting man. An accomplished guitarist. A mechanical genius. A master machinist. An amazing story teller. Teddy’s father was from West Texas, his mother, Miss Molly, was a Cajun Princess. I was lucky enough to spend quite a bit of time visiting Teddy in his Orange, TX home. For a few years Uncle Teddy’s place was on our list of things-to-do whenever we visited the USA.

I got to know his Mother, Miss Molly.

Everyone called her “Miss Molly”. She had a “negress” caregiver looking after her daily. She was an artefact of a time past. She was old school Gentile Cajun. She was born in a time of a different form of political correctness. Miss Molly was prim and proper and correct in all she did. I always felt honoured to be in her presence. Uncle Teddy’s good manners and charm came from his Mother.

One of my favourite uncle Teddy tales…

It’s late in the 1980s. We’re on Guadalcanal. One of the big past-times in those days was scuba diving. Pretty much everyone that was posted to GCanal did a dive course, got certified, bought gear and started diving. The Solomons offers some of the worlds best underwater adventuring… The water is warm so no need for wet suits and loads of weight. The coastline of GCanal offers numerous, easy to access beach dive sites. So all we needed to do was grab our gear, hop in a car and drive the short distance to Bonegi.

It’s a Saturday morning. I recall Willis and a couple other folks all gathered on the beach, preparing to enjoy an easy 40minutes underwater. Uncle Teddy was there, going for his first ever scuba dive. It was customary for the gang I ran with to take folks on an introductory dive, to get them interested, started on their way to being a certified diver.

That day Willis is Teddy’s instructor…. gives him the prep intro, shows him his gear, gets him suited-up and in the water.

Bonegi is an easy dive, start shallow, work down to around 100feet, slowly ascend up the coral wall. 40minutes is the average time a tank of air lasts at such depths. And 40minutes was about as long as a recreational dive needs to be.

We surface, waddle ashore, drop our gear.

Someone asked Uncle Teddy, “how was it”… we’re all expecting the usual 1st-dive enthusiasm. A torrent of words proclaiming the amazing-ness of being under water, enjoying the gravity absent feeling of flying, the colours the activity the spectacle of it all…

So, “Teddy, how was it?”… To which Teddy replied:

“Damn long time to go without a cigarette.”

To my knowledge Uncle Teddy never went scuba diving again.

And the beat goes on.

More later

A rainy grey day in my valley. Good day to be tired and do some reading, some research…

I had a thought to check on an old compadre I have not heard from for ages and ages. My buddy, Teddy Selman, went off-grid a long time ago. I probably have not spoke to him since shortly after the September 11 2001 bombing . Teddy was unhappy with the idea of the Home Land Security scene and the resulting restrictions on what he saw as his rights to be armed. Teddy was an avid gun collector/ owner. I know he owned over 200 guns and a life time of ammo.

So Teddy went dark, dropped off the www, got rid of his phone.

I have a habit of checking the obituaries, checking phone numbers and such. Attempting to stay in some form of touch with Teddy and other old friends.

Today I find this:

THEODORE “TED” SELMAN

June 12, 2025

Theodore “Ted” Selman, age 74, of Orange, Texas, passed away at his home on June 10, 2025.

Ted was born on October 9,1950 to Jim Ben Selman and Mollie Belile Selman. He was a lifelong Orange resident with many hobbies, including playing guitar, welding, learning foreign languages, and history. He was a talented, self-made man, and after working as a machinist for Dupont for many years, he later opened his own machine shop. Ted also loved learning about different cultures and communities, which led him to volunteer for the Peace Corps. Although a lifetime bachelor, his contribution to the next generation, including his valued mentorship to his niece and nephews will be greatly missed. 

Ted is preceded in death by his parents; brother, Carl Dean Selman and his sister Michele Selman Moore.

Those left to cherish Ted’s memory are his nephew James Stringer, Jr,; great niece, Katrina Stringer; great nephew, Jeremy Stringer; great-great nephew, Bodhi King, and lifelong friend Keet Goforth.

After cremation, Ted will be interred at Nibletts Bluff Cemetery in Vinton, Louisiana.  An informal graveside ceremony will take place at a later date. 

All I can say is “Adios Pard”.

More later

Or not…

I was and remain perplexed that there are folks that can not, will not, ever ever ever say DJT did something good.

Never shall a positive word for Evil Orange Man pass their lips… ever ever ever…

So today, in DC, a European Leader’s meeting, the likes of which is unheard of, took place.

The leaders from Britain, Germany, France, Italy, Finland, the European Union and NATO met with DJT and Ukraine’s Zelensky. They met in short order, post the DJT/ Putin meeting held on Friday in Alaska.

I find it amazing that in a few short days DJT got the leaders of Europe to agree on a path forward for the Russo/ Ukraine conflict.

What I heard was positive. May not check all the boxes but if it ends the carnage and destruction then I claim it’s positive. For instance: The Crimea appears to remain with Russia. Of course we know that the Crimea was “annexed” by Russia during the Obama administration. As well, Ukraine shall not join the Nato alliance, but NATO is offering security to Ukraine in the form of a one-for-all and all-for-one agreement, just like NATO has.

For all the talk of DJT being Putin’s bum-boy, I kinda think that Obama, yes, St. Obama of the immaculate term in office, gave more, conceded more, granted more to VPutin than any other, before or after.

Why did Obama allow Putin to walk in and “annex” Crimea? I’ll research this later, but for now… Do you recall a live-mic scene around 2013 when Obama told Vlad that he’s have more “lee-way” after he stopped being prez. I always saw something fishy, something sinister at that time.

So, all the TDS sickos that think crime in DC and war in Ukraine his better than paying DJT a compliment, granting him a win…

I say damn!

Hats off to DJT for a) being the only clown in the circus that can get there other clowns to cooperate, and b) having the ability, sense and experience to pull a deal together that will end what I consider to be a terrible decade plus long conflict.

More later

Pondering, ruminating… on this fine Sunday morning… blood sports on the tube… cloudless powder blue skies… flora and fauna active and happy… a herd of young deer frolicking outside my window…

I am trolling through the various news feeds… trolling as in “trolling for fish”… not “Trolling” in the modern social sense:

I am going through the various comments and thoughts regarding the Alaskan Summit. I am trying to see what folks on all sides of this discussion think. I am finding it difficult. There is soooo much illogical BS going on…

I wonder if I watched, experienced, the same thing that other folks saw. What people close, important, respected saw, heard, experienced…

I watched and saw a pretty interesting international event… I watched the Authoritarian Leader of Russia meet the Democratically Elected Leader of the USA… At an airbase in the USA (Alaska)… with a show-of-might fly-over of the world’s most deadly aircraft.

I watched as Vlad Putin appeared small in stature next to DJT. I watched as Vlad Putin did a triple-take on the show-of-might flying above his head. I watched as DJT appeared to be welcoming, charming, in control.

I have listened to the talking heads, read the articles left and right, spoke to many people near and dear…

So many folks are illogically defending the indefensible position that TRUMP is weak, TRUMP is bad, Trump is evil.

I had one such near and dear explain to me that Vlad Putin won the day, Trump got played, looks like a fool, was only there to perform oral sex on Vlad…

That was deep and meaningful!

I dont get it… we all watched the same thing…

Putin met with Trump at an agreed location in the USA. I call that home court advantage. I call that being the shot caller, getting to choose the location for the meeting. I call it “being in control” when someone I’m doing business with travels to meet me at the venue of my choosing.

But, no chance, none what so ever that our TDS afflicted friends and family will see this for what it really is. Nope! Folks with their heads still stuck in the “hand up dont shoot” BS, folks still believing George Floyd is a martyr, these folks will never see anything DJT does or accomplishes as good, successful, positive…

Nope, not possible with folks sick, ill, afflicted with TRUMP Derangement Syndrome…

And I find this very sad. I am sad and disturbed that sooo many smart, thoughtful, aware and learned folks simply dont see, cant see the factual reality I see…

I see a situation that has been allowed to ferment in an era of incompetence and negligence. An era starting decades ago when the Clintons and the Obamas, with a side-kick named Biden kicked a high octane Pay-to-Play scheme into gear. Operated out of the white house, this scheme was suppose to be the new SOP… standard operating procedure. Using foundations and family members and non-profit orgs, the Clintons were raking in huge $$$s. Selling influence and access. While lining their pockets.

The Obama team was going to do the same, wanted to do the same, the same as the Clintons… charge half-a-mil for a couple hour speech. Charge a hundred-grand for a round of golf with the ex-USPrez. Charge for dinner meetings. Charge huge bucks to sit on Boards, to be on a committee, to influence and assist, to grease the corrupt wheels that run the DC machines.

As near as I can tell, anyone or anything that interferes with the greasing of the corrupt wheels gets disappeared ala’ Clinton style suicide.

Using the Alaskan Summit as a starting point and looking backwards… In 2025 we are attempting to resolve a military conflict that has been going on since 2014…
February 2014:Russian troops, initially without insignia, began appearing in Crimea, taking control of key locations like airports and government buildings. 
March 2014:A referendum, widely considered illegitimate by the international community, was held in Crimea, with results showing overwhelming support for annexation by Russia. 
March 2014:Russia formally annexed Crimea and Sevastopol, incorporating them into the Russian Federation. 
International Response:Most of the world does not recognize the annexation, considering it a violation of international law and Ukraine’s sovereignty. 
Ongoing Conflict:The annexation of Crimea and Russia’s support for separatists in eastern Ukraine (Donbas) led to a prolonged conflict in the region, with fighting continuing until the 2022 invasion. 
Death and Destruction: Over 2million combatants and civilians have been killed or injured since 2022.

Quick important note… Barack Obama’s tenure as the 44th president of the United States began with his first inauguration on January 20, 2009, and ended on January 20, 2017.

Obama allowed the initial actions of this now decade long war to take place, and though he spoke of lines in the sand, I never thought he was honest about his intent to resolve the Crimean issue. To stand up against Vlad Putin.

Biden allowed the Russo/Ukraine war to happen. In 2022 the Russian invasion was accepted without overt response or action. Putin knew he could ride rough over Biden. Even after Biden said “dont”.

And where are we now…

For many folks they remain in illogical defence of an illogical position.

More later

Saturday morning this side of the planet. Damp n cold in the big farm house. The sun has broken over the ridges but the thermal pleasures of sunlight are slow to make their presence known. Lady Godzilla is curled up in my lap. Its going to be a lovely day…

Its is Friday afternoon in Alaska.

Putin and Trump are in Anchorage. Pomp and circumstance the order of the day.

Some quick, loose facts about the Russia v Ukraine conflict:

There is quite a bit to go through here. Note the DPRK forces killed and wounded. Interesting, no?

The base line in my mind is this…

a) Russian losses:

b) Ukrrainian losses:

Im working the quantum out in my mind… I see 40 months = 24Feb,22-13June25… 1 million +- losses, combining killed and wounded on each side… so 25,000 losses monthly, 25,000 killed or wounded each month for 40 months, on each side of the grave-digging.

Quick comparison to The Viet Nam conflict gives us:

This is roughly between 1960 – 1974. Gotta applaud the Russo-Ukraine warriors. They sure are doing a better job at killing than we saw in VN.

And this is just a look at the flesh and blood carnage. The damage to land, infrastructure, productivity and life in general is incalculable.

I’m wondering what this has cost… Found a decent discussion here: https://www.socialeurope.eu/what-has-been-the-cost-of-ukraines-war-and-who-pays

Some take aways:

The hard facts of three years of war—considering both economic costs and political consequences—present a stark reality. Ukraine is a fragile nation, its economy and war effort sustained only by Western support.

The destruction caused by the war has been immense. By December 2023, international institutions estimated the damage at $152 billion. Today, the United Nations predicts that the country’s reconstruction may cost $486 billion—roughly two and a half times Ukraine’s GDP.

Three years after the war in Ukraine began, this logic of war must be stopped. A new accord between Trump and Putin will not bring lasting peace to Ukraine. But Europe cannot pursue an agenda of war at any cost, nor should it chase dangerous ambitions of becoming a (small) military and nuclear power. Nostalgia for a fractured Atlantic alliance is of little use. Europe’s future now depends on its ability to end the war in Ukraine, initiate negotiations, and build a lasting peace order on the continent—through political means, not military escalation.

“Lasting Peace”… what does that mean?

I guess mankind is constantly looking for, waiting for yet another Lasting Peace.

More later

I started baking bread again recently…

Recently I started baking bread again…

Baking is magical. Baking is alchemy. Baking is very cool. But baking bread, the addition of yeast is more, more magical, more special, more cool…

My memories are filled with that yeasty smell of magic in the oven. My grandmother’s hands always smelled of fresh bread. The hot kitchen was a nice place to be when Mom was baking. I can go back to the late 1950s, I am very small, the kitchen in the old farm house south of Knoxville was huge. Mom’s loaves of bread were bigger than my head. A slice was an event. Covered in butter and jam, a fresh slice was/is heaven.

I baked a couple small loaves last eve. I have dough in the refrigerator rising, ready and loaded.

The single loaf looks lonely by itself. Bread making in my world is normally more industrial. I’d normally make a number of loaves, not just one or two. But my world these days bread is a novelty, not a staple. I can do with less carbs. Eating a loaf of fresh bread not something I should be doing often… But it is sooo good…

And the world turns, the soul yearns, the planet burns…

And the beat goes on…

Wood not war…. Bread no bombs…

more later

I can feel the globe tilting on its access. Tho its still cold by QLD standards, the sun is hitting the valley earlier, the radiant warmth is showing up and spreading it’s joy earlier. The chilled wind still blows from the SouEast. A bit of rain has fallen. For the first time in 2years my water tanks are not 100%.

The average bear in the woods knows little about water-management. Even though a large percentage of the planet survives on/ with water that is caught, collected, stored, managed. Rain attachment is a very common method of water management. My farm survives primarily on rain catchment. We do have a ground-water system reticulating through the property, but the houses survive on rain water caught and stored in a number of large, 20,000litre/ 5500gallon tanks.

Coming from the Solomons I know about rain catchment, water management, and water usage. I have experienced prolonged drought conditions, I have survived without immediate access to fresh water, had to travel daily to collect and carry fresh water home, I learned to bathe in the ocean using a specialised salt-water soap.

Water is life.

And, after a couple years of tanks overflowing, I shall go out today and manage my water. Balance the water levels between my 3 main tanks.

The average bear in the modern woods knows little of water other than you pay the monthly water-bill, you have all the water you need, all the time, without interruption.

This is emblematic of our modern world vs the old style/ undeveloped world… let me check for some stats… from https://ourworldindata.org/what-no-safe-water-means

In the time it would take me to write the next sentence, I could get up, walk to the kitchen, and pour myself a glass of clean water. I’ve never had to worry about whether that water would make me sick. Almost six billion other people in the world share this reality. They have safe drinking water in their homes, ready whenever needed. That still leaves two billion people without. That’s the most important number in this article: two billion people who don’t have safe water to drink. But these large numbers can seem abstract. It’s not clear what this means in practice. If people don’t have safe water, what are they drinking? What does it mean for their daily lives?

So we are being told 1 in 3 humans on the spinning globe do not have access to safe, clean, fresh water resources.

In a way I think these numbers are a bit off… I’d suggest the access to water that is safe and clean is a bigger issue than this. But, I digress. 1 in 3 is a significant. Even though, I would have thought half the population experiences some form of fresh water crisis regularly, consistently.

The article referenced is, in my humble opinion, reporting on a specific “project”. I am skeptical of the numbers. I’d need to do a deeper dive into it all to agree or disagree articulately.

Suffice it to say:

Water is life….

I’ll come back from my wet tangent…

The world today is still as stressed and tense and confused as it was yesterday. I am still seeing meaningless memes that influence for the wrong reasons. That are designed and developed to mislead. One I shall pick up is the Israel/ Palestine sadness…

History is very static here, in the discussion of a “Two State Solution”.

What does a two state solution mean?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Two-state_solution The two-state solution is a proposed approach to resolving the Israeli–Palestinian conflict, by creating two states on the territory of the former Mandatory Palestine. It is often contrasted with the one-state solution, which is the establishment a single state in former Mandatory Palestine with equal rights for all its inhabitants. The two-state solution is supported by many countries and the Palestinian Authority.[1] Israel currently does not support the idea, though it has in the past.

The 2 state solution was originally considered in 1937. Since that time the “solution” has gone through several iterations and Palestine has rejected or withdrawn from every proposed solution.

Israel is reportedly the evil empire here, and is causing the angst and suffering. BUT, Palestine has rejected every proposal, or broken every agreement over the past 88 years. The blurb above is biased in the obvious: Israel currently does not support the idea, though it has in the past.

Technically false. Noting well Palestine has never accepted any agreement to down-arms, play nice, live together in peace.

I struggle with some of the on-line info I discover. I find much/ most biased. A large % is biased in an anti-Israel way. The Palestinians have been granted the status of victimhood. Thus the global bleeding-heart brigade cries poor Palestine, poor Palestine.

I love how the propaganda machines of the planet pump the Palestine-is-good music into our headphones. Even though we know, KNOW, neither side in any conflict has clean hands. If Palestine was truly good they would have released their hostages ages and ages ago, or not taken any at all, ever.

If Palestine was truly good they would not hide in and around and under civilian facilities. Nor would they spend megabucks building tunnels, preparing for war, if they were truly good. If they intended to be peaceful.

I think of the bombing of Dresden… https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bombing_of_Dresden

Dresden was an industrial area and there is much discussion that the act was not war, but rather a war crime… Critics of the bombing argue that Dresden was a cultural landmark with little strategic significance, and that the attacks were indiscriminate area bombing and were not proportionate to military gains.[13][14][15] Some claim that the raid was a war crime. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bombing_of_Dresden

And my point: in such conflict there are no clean hands…

Time to check my dogs…

Nia’s pups are gorgeous…

More later

August is here. Damn the year is flashing past!

I am sitting with my damaged leg up, Lady Godzilla is playing on her own, Nia, with her 2 fresh pups, is on the deck.

Recap of my past few days… Wednesday I got my leg stuck between 2 machines. After a few hours in ER I got home with no broken bones but very, very, very sore. Thursday I spent licking my wounds and moaning and groaning. Friday Nia started nesting. By noon she’d dropped her first pup. We now, Saturday morning, have 2, nice n fresh n pretty puppies:

This breeding season we sired with an immature dog, Dandy, that was obviously just on the sperm-bank side of maturity. He bred with Quel first. A few days later he bred Nia. Both bitches went into obvious pregnancy. Both bitches had wet teats a week ago. Quel never really looked too pregnant, other than the wet teats. Recently Quel went dry again. Obviously a phantom pregnancy, which is not terribly uncommon.

I’m elated Nia dropped pups. I had thought she’d too be experiencing a false pregnancy. Of course we expect more from this breed, but the immature stud explains where the small litter. And we do have a lovely silver bitch-pup and a great looking brindle boy. Nia is being a perfect mother. And we plan to breed again.

Son, Don, and his 3/4yr old, Andromeda, showed up yesterday for the weekend. Puppies and little kids = lots of joy and confusion.

So August is here, the calendar year is dwindling, and life is good due to puppies and children.

And beat up legs are no good. This getting old bullshit is harder than I expected.

More later

Smiles

Some pictures first…

The last picture is me and Lady Godzilla keeping my sore, damaged, sad leg up…

Today is a Thursday. On Tuesday I got my left leg stuck between a couple machines while working. In all reality I got lucky. I did think the leg was broken, but it’s only beaten and battered and sore as can be.

I was mowing and got stuck in the mud. Using another machine to drag the mower out of the mud the accident occurred. I admit that I got lucky, it could be worse. Getting between two big machines is never wise. I guess I needed a reminder.

It’s been ages since I have required an emergency medical trip. In my years here in Aus I have never been to the Emergency in any hospital. I must say things work well. I know more now about how this emergency medical stuff happens. They make it easy… all you have to do is wait, be patient, relax and wait and wait and wait.

Luckily I am good at waiting.

Today, the sky is blue, the air is crisp, the wind is brisk, chilly, cutting. Great day for getting things done outside…

And I sit with my leg up.

Moving is painful. I’d like to be up and about and getting things done. Always will have a lot to do, the tasks large and small never end. The ground is drying up, but obviously not as dry as I need, noting I was stuck in the mud when my “incident” happened.

I blame my own stupidity for the accident… I had been mowing and slashing for a few hours and was running out of dry areas to mow, so I tried an area I know to be wet, and promptly got stuck. I was near to putting the machines away, going onto other maintenance jobs. But I guess a trip to the ER was better than getting work done. And I guess I needed a break, I needed a week of leg up healing… to start the month of August.

The gods do indeed have a profound sense of humour.

And the beat goes on…

more later

Tuesday morning in my little valley. It’s almost 9am and I sit, wrapped up, waiting for some warmth to shine into the air. Got pretty chilly over night. The sun is out, the sky is blue and the air is still a chilly 10c/ 50f.

I am reading of coming, predicted, soon to be at a theatre near you, Weather Events.

It is predicted to be wet for the next many months. And where its not wet, wet, wet it shall be hot, or cold, or tsunami, or something in the middle… but it shall be nasty and abnormal and scary and…

Yes, Chicken Little, the sky is falling… everywhere, all at once.

As near as I can tell, “weather” is what is happening “outside” all the time, everyday, every year. It is never the same, it is always changing, and predicting it is pretty much impossible.

Tho we keep trying.

One thing that we can do with general weather “predictions” is look into the past. Not to predict the future but to compare and report. We have a number of years of records to review, to use, to assist in “trying” to prepare for what comes next. Of course we have learned through generations of observations that certain winds blow in certain directions during certain times of the year. We know that certain winds are dry, others are wet. We know storms, cyclones, hurricanes and tornadoes have seasons, sorta.

In the equatorial tropics of the Solomon Islands I learned that there is generally a wet season, and a wetter season. But sometimes we went into drought.

For the area where I live, I found this bit of essential information… The annual rainfall in the Maleny region typically averages around 2,000 mm (79 in). However, rainfall can be highly variable, with some years experiencing totals reaching up to 4,000 mm (160 in). Monthly and daily rainfall can also fluctuate significantly, with monthly totals sometimes exceeding 1,000 mm (39 in) and 24-hour totals reaching up to 300 mm (12 in)

Maleny, referenced above, is 20 minutes uphill from me. Its is on a peak of the ridge-line, overlooking the coast. I believe weather gets stuck on the ridge, holds and collects moisture. Often the area around Maleny is shrouded in low hanging cloud cover. Fog is a common occurrence.

My valley is in what I consider a “rain shadow”. I’m on the backside of the ridge-line that separates the coastal zone from the country zone. We normally get more rain than the coastal zone, but when the big storms blow in, when the cyclones come, they normally make land fall and hug the coast line, giving us little of the cyclonic effects. As the coast gets battered we sit snug in our valley. But when the weather gets stuck on the ridge-line (which is common) we get dumped on.

These past couple years have been wet, wet, wet… after a year long drought 2019/2020.

Weather collection locations are all over the place, but none really close to where I am. I know from experience that a short distance towards the coast, or a short distance away from the coast means big differences. Travel west, less than an hour from here, and it gets dry very quickly.

So I look at the weather from a number of locations around me… I found this useful resource… http://www.bom.gov.au/jsp/ncc/cdio/weatherData/av?p_nccObsCode=136&p_display_type=dailyDataFile&p_startYear=&p_c=&p_stn_num=040169

My take on predicting the weather is that we cant, really. We can record what has happened and try to think we know something useful from the study of the collected date… but we suck at predicting the weather of tomorrow.

And the beat goes on.

More later

A good storm and 40mm of rain over night leaves the air crystal clear and fizzing with ozone… Did you know: The smell of ozone is distinct from the earthy smell of petrichor, which is caused by plant oils and geosmin released from the soil. Ozone, a molecule composed of three oxygen atoms (O3), is formed when lightning splits oxygen and nitrogen molecules in the atmosphere. The strong winds associated with thunderstorms can carry this ozone down to ground level, where its sharp, pungent smell can be detected.

I am watching the world spin on its confused, eclectic, eccentric course. I feel we are in epochal times, changing times, shifting times… its all the same really, eccentric or epochal… its all about change…

Change is good, if it’s good change.

I viewed the change of my hairline, many decades ago, as bad change.

I saw the invent/ advent of the www as good change. I saw it as having access to the world’s libraries, to mankind’s accumulated wealth of knowledge. I saw it as no longer needing to have my complete set of Encyclopaedia Britannia and the Greatest Works of the Western World with me at all times. Over 200lbs/ 90kgs of books are hard to manage, store, access.

Somewhere in life’s wake my encyclopaedias are sitting, rotting, unloved, unwanted… and thats sad.

The world is changing from one of printed-on-paper to one of electronically-generated… I started reading on-line ages ago. I found Project Gutenberg ages ago: https://www.gutenberg.org

I like the idea that books from Gutenberg are free, and there are many long lost, all but forgotten writers’ complete works available. Did I say, for free? Jack London, Herman Melville, Arthur Canon Doyle, Louis Becke, Andre Dumas are a few of my favourites.

I have not subscribed to a periodical for ever and ever. Ages ago my Time and Newsweek, and Guardian, and Economist subscriptions were important. It was exciting to receive your monthly mag in the mail. Up until recent years I subscribed to Nat-Geo. Some where in my past life is a box or two filled with old copies of Nat-Geo.

I subscribe these days, on-line, to few sites. I avoid pay-walls. I tend to search and look and dig and generally find the info I require without forking out any $$. The www offers heaps if one is patient, and enjoys reading.

One sad, sad change is the fact that “journalism”, the art of reporting “news” is dead and gone. Life is filled with talking-heads stating their opinions as facts. I read a number of “small town” newspapers and find little news therein. One I really liked recently is a simple paragraph that declares its bias quickly… The cost of living, access to housing, and climate change are impacting the number of children Australians are having. Should we be concerned about the long-term implications of declining birth rates?

From the press here in Australia… COL, access to housing, and Climate Change are IMPACTING the number of children…

Sure, explain to me you’re not biased, that you’re just faithfully reporting the NEWZ…

Lastly… some plain talk about climate change… funny, sad, and true…

And the beat goes on

More later

Winter on Australia’s Sunshine Coast is pretty easy to handle. Coming from the frozen plains of the Midwest the word “Winter” conjures much different mental pictures than the winters we get here…

I’ll take a Sunny Coast winter over an Iowa winter any day…

More July’s lies come in the form of those annoying, meaningless memes that abound all around the virtual social network world:

First and foremost I finds this:

CBS canceled The Late Show with Stephen Colbert because it was losing $40 million a year. The Late Show – whose cancelation was announced Thursday – costs $100m a year to produce, with Colbert, 61, getting paid between $15 million and $20 million a year to host

So lets all cry for poor old SC who was a white night in dark political times… who took on the most powerful and despicable leader in the free world and lost…

NOT!

No, he diid not get “cancelled” for being ruthlessly anti Trump, trying to save democracy, nor championing the rights and freedoms of the down trodden.

His politics are not the reasons for his termination, nor are his words, that so few people chose to listen to…

The reason is simple… Folks simply were not watching, listening to SC any more. He had lost his audience, lost his pertinence and lost his sponsors.

An old saying… If IT dont pay, IT dont stay…

I know some folks (with too much time on their hands) shall conflate this into YET ANOTHER example of the pending authoritarianism we’ve been promised by the fascist and evil DJT. Its all due to that nebulous and nefarious AUTHORITARIANISM I believe so many folks are wishing for, banking on.

How else can these folks justify all their negative energy, anxiety and angst? There has to be a spook in the closet and a goblin under the bridge. There simply has to be. They cant JUST be wrong… IMPOSSIBLE!

Joy Reid falls into the same category… cancelled because she wasn’t relevant nor profitable. Period. If she had been relevant she would have attracted more viewers and thus more sponsors. But it wasn’t so.

Of course, for a long suffering black lady like Joy, it’s all about race… There are a couple good scenes where Joy simply cannot accept the facts and argues it has to be because of her sex and her race. That can be the only reason why folks dont want to listen to her. She aint sad or bad or unimportant… nope.

You are racist is the reason for Joy’s failure. You are a racist is always and all ways the reason… for some folks…

And the beat goes on…

and on…

and on…

More later

Smiles all around.

“Batteries simply cannot make a transition to wind and solar power feasible. The amount, and hence the cost, of storage is far too great.”

This is a great discussion I found here : https://wattsupwiththat.com/2025/07/12/making-pjm-all-wind-and-solar-would-cost-over-2-4-trillion-in-battery-backup/

By David Wojick

I keep reading how big batteries are all it takes to make wind and solar reliable as the sole grid electricity source. The reality is that making wind and solar work at all requires a fantastic amount of battery backup, far more than is possible.

Below is an example using the PJM grid. PJM is America’s biggest grid operator, with a territory covering the Mid-Atlantic and points west. Their territory includes the Washington, DC metro area, where all the federal bigwigs live, making it a good place to start. I also live there.

We are quantifying a fantasy, so let’s keep it very simple. In fact, the basic question is why hasn’t PJM done this simple analysis? They do a lot of sophisticated grid modeling. Or maybe they have done this crucial assessment, but it is a secret, which is even worse.

Consider a single day in a typical peak demand summer heatwave. The heatwave is due to a stagnant high-pressure system called a Bermuda high, so there is not enough wind to generate usable wind power, no matter how much generating capacity is available.

It is sunny during the day, so let’s assume that for 8 hours we get enough solar to meet demand (or, as I prefer to call it, to meet need). For the other 16 hours, we meet demand using batteries. We import nothing because our neighbors are in the same needy boat.

Finally, for simplicity, I assume the demand is at the peak level for the entire 24 hour day. This overestimates things a bit, but we will find that does not matter. A fancier analysis would use a typical demand curve. PJM can handle that.

My example year is 2030, as that is a standard near-term transition target year for which we have reasonable estimates of peak demand. Here then are the very simple numbers.

PJM’s estimate peak demand for 2030 is about 180,000 MW.

Meeting that for 16 hours with batteries requires 2,880,000 MWh of usable storage.

Usable storage is between 20% and 80% of nameplate battery capacity, hence 60%.

Thus we need 4,800,000 MWh of nameplate battery capacity.

Storage facility capital costs vary, but $500,000 per MWh is a reasonable estimate.

This gives a total cost of $2.4 trillion, or $2,400,000,000,000, for the batteries to make wind and solar reliable in this case. This fantastic cost is clearly not feasible.

There are things that could make this number go down a bit, such as reduced cost per MWh. But given last year saw just 130,000 MWh installed worldwide, the production capacity does not exist, so we are talking about new mines and factories. It actually cannot be done by 2030, not even close.

But the realistic numbers would be much higher if this fantasy played out because low wind, near-peak heatwaves often last for several days, even a week. Ten trillion dollars is easily possible. We are, after all, talking about hundreds of thousands of tractor-trailer sized batteries, basically containers full of expensive chemicals. Moreover, this is just for PJM.

Batteries simply cannot make a transition to wind and solar power feasible. The amount, and hence the cost, of storage is far too great.

Given the simplicity of this analysis, using readily available data, the big question is why are these impossible numbers not already widely known? PJM and their big utilities all do detailed modeling and supposed reliability assessments. So does NERC, whose sole mission is reliability. Many utilities file annual Integrated Resource Plans with their state regulators, typically looking out 20 years or more.

That battery backup cannot make wind and solar powered grids possible is obvious given these incredible numbers. The electric power industry must know this, but their silence is deafening

It’s a sunny Sunday morn after a frigid Saturday night. Got down to 6c/ 43f. The big old house was very chilly this morning.

Reading and writing a lot lately. I’m in training to learn to sit on my arse. Going in for ankle reconstruction soon.

I have lived an adventurous and hazardous existence. I’ll trade none of my experiences to lose my scars, my stripes, my badges of merit, my participation trophies. But the price of adventure over cost of injury has caught up with me. Ive broke my self up heaps and will now pay one of the fees required.

They call it minimally invasive…. I’ll hold onto this convenient personal belief, I’ll delude myself and feel better for it… Believing that the sawing of my bones is “minimally invasive”…

Post-Op will require my foot in a cast for 8weeks or more. In prep I am practicing sitting, building a list of research topics and discussions, and doing physio. Getting strong so I can enjoy atrophy.

I’m taking it easy. Do not want to re-injure the ankle, have any accidents before they take the saw to my bones.

I sit, I read, I write… preparing myself for the fallow times to come…

One of the bigger concepts I have been ruminating upon is that of “Convenient Personal Beliefs”…

We all lie to ourselves. We create myths and legends in our minds. One that comes to mind quickly, one that covers both delusional myths and BS legends is that of Che Guevara…. “Ernesto “Che” Guevara was an Argentine Marxist revolutionary, physician, author, guerrilla leader, diplomat, politician and military theorist. A major figure of the Cuban Revolution, his stylized visage has become a ubiquitous countercultural symbol of rebellion and global insignia in popular culture”

I never understood, even when I was a young liberal minded no-nothing-at-all, how a sadistic and moralistic and evil dude won the mindless popularity contest. Even when I was young I knew Che was “evil”… I knew… In real life, however, Che Guevara was a monster. Despite Che’s global reputation as a lovable revolutionary, there was a very dark side to him, marked by immoral behavior and ruthless brutality. Behind the romanticized image of the charming rebel lay a man deeply embedded in the brutal and bloody violence of armed struggle. In the mountains of Cuba, and later in Bolivia, Guevara was not merely a theorist of guerrilla warfare but an active participant. Crucially, Che was personally responsible for overseeing the wanton execution of numerous individuals – executions he saw as necessary for the cause, but which by any objective standards would be labeled as cold-hearted terrorism. https://rabbidunner.com/the-dangerous-allure-of-radical-chic/

Another convenient personal belief is that of what was referred to early on as “Climate Change”… Some call it Global Warming, I call it glowball warming… I have written of many friends, peers, compadres that are sold 100% on the “sky is falling” version of “climate change”.

Think of your grandchildren. Is a common BS line… what about the children of the future… says the misled fool that thinks the millions and billions wasted on mitigating the effects of climate change by throwing money into unproven and sometimes erroneous tech is the right road forward.

I very much cringe as the liberal elite western world believes sending their dirt over seas, to less developed nations, is a positive in the war against climate change. There is a convenient personal belief that if I send my manufacturing, my industrial production and emissions to “somewhere else” my hands are cleaner. My plans for a brighter and better future for my grandchildren glows by exporting that which we deem unwanted, dirty, bad.

Sure, destroy another Nation’s future, but not our own. Makes sense to me!

Child labour, slavery, below existence-level wages, strip mines, coal fired power plants, and more that is evil and bad and unwanted “HERE”, is apparently OK, over there.

In recent political history a humongous convenient personal belief was that Prez Joe Biden was … sharp, running circles around us, better than ever, just a stutterer, commanding and inquisitive… Sure, we know, knew it was all lie but, if you believe your lie is it still a lie? Is it not Truth if you believe it? Or is that a twist too far?

Another is the idea that Palestinians are victimised by the Israelis, the Zionists, the West…

I agree the Palestinians are victims, but their scourge is their religion, their elected radical leaders. Period.

And, as a result of our convenient personal beliefs, we import thousands of sad, beaten, needy folks. We open our arms, open our borders to people, folks, races, religions that Hate Us!

Sure, sounds like a winning plan to me.

Another sad, convenient personal belief is that one can change or choose their sex. That there are more than two sexes. That biological sex is fluid. I know I’ll get nailed again (and again) for this position, my words… but… Its one of those “follow the science” sorta gigs… Convince me there are more than two sexes. I am very open minded. I simply dont think lying to myself or others is a positive. You got a dick you are a guy. You got a vagina and you be a gal. Cut your dick off, mutilate yourself and you’re a guy that cut his dick off. You’r not a gal.

Another convenient personal belief is that of abortion… I have a long, long history discussing this topic. I have people near and dear that tell me… “Its not a human life”, “its just a parasitic node attached to the “host””, “you are male so dont have a say”…

I am not opposed to abortion. I refuse to tell folks what they can or cannot do with their bodies in private, on their own dime. I am not anti-abortion, but I do say a) call it what it is, “murder”, and b) no public funding for murdering the unborn. Pay for it yourself.

And the beat goes on.

More

Later

Big Smiles